Dupoint, Iv And All, Eying The Presidency

COMMENTARY

September 21, 1986|By DAVID BRODER, Washington Post Writers Group

ATLANTA -- Six months ago, I ran into Pierre S. (Pete) duPont, IV, the former governor of Delaware, speaking to a luncheon here for perhaps 100 young business people who contribute modestly but regularly to the Georgia Republican Party.

His talk was largely a recital of his record in his eight years as governor, ending in 1984. He told how he had slashed individual and business tax rates to attract banks and industry, improved the state`s shaky credit rating, and persuaded a Democratic-controlled legislature to support tougher school standards and an innovative program to find entry-level jobs for all Delaware high-school graduates.

Leaving the lunch, one of the paying guests remarked to a friend, ``Boy, if we could just once elect a governor like that!`` Georgia, of course, has never had a Republican governor, so the envy was understandable.

When I described the strong impression duPont had made, to a GOP political consultant back in Washington, his response was instant and dismissive. ``Americans,`` he said, ``don`t elect presidents with Roman numerals behind their names.``

That may be all that needs to be said about the presidential candidacy duPont announced last week. But it strikes me as a mistake to underestimate the advantage enjoyed by veterans of the governor`s office in general, and duPont in particular, in this era of politics.

GOVERNORS HAVE EDGE ON LAWMAKERS

In successive presidential elections, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan, the former governors of Georgia and California, beat strong Washington-based competitors to win their parties` nominations and then went on to capture the White House.

Today`s voters seem to recognize that governors are accountable in ways that senators and representatives simply are not. It`s hard to dismiss as empty theories the views of someone who has run a state, balanced its budget, dealt with floods, prison riots and recalcitrant legislatures.

The experiences may or may not be relevant; Carter`s government reorganization in Georgia proved a poor model for managing the federal bureaucracy, and Reagan as president repudiated the abortion policy he supported as governor. But there is at least a prima facie political plausibility a former governor commands that is not available to someone who simply introduces bills in Congress.

The smaller the state and the less attention it gets from the national media, the harder to convert the coin of success from the governorship to a presidential campaign. That may be a serious problem for duPont, for Arizona Gov. Bruce Babbitt, a Democrat, who hopes to join the White House chase when he leaves office in January, and for former one-term Virginia Gov. Charles S. Robb, another Democrat, who has several power brokers urging him to run.

DUPONT HAS A NICE BRUSH STROKE

By contrast, voters across America are accustomed to thinking of big- state governors as presidential timber, so New York`s Mario M. Cuomo, a Democrat, Illinois` James R. Thompson, a Republican, and perhaps Massachusetts Democrat Michael S. Dukakis would have no hurdle of skepticism to overcome if their national ambitions should blossom after they win their expected re- election victories in November.

DuPont`s case is complicated by the fact that he bears a famous industrial name which is symbolic of great inherited wealth and that his tiny home state also has an ambitious Democratic presidential aspirant in Sen. Joe Biden. But as the Atlanta audience showed, he has a plausible success story to tell and he can tell it convincingly. He has raised substantial sums the past six years for Republican legislative candidates around the country, and those young legislators offer at least the nucleus of an organization in some of the presidential primary states.

DuPont is positioning himself to do in 1988 what Gary Hart did on the Democratic side in 1984, i.e., emerge as a plausible challenger when one of the presumed front-runners stumbles in the early going. Early on, he appeared ready either to replace Vice President Bush as the favorite of Wall Street and the Eastern establishment or Rep. Jack Kemp of New York as the apostle of supply-side tax cuts.

With Kemp hitting more bumps than Bush so far, duPont has moved rightward, emphasizing his support for the Strategic Defense Initiative, for workfare and for a tougher anti-drug program, including mandatory testing of all high school students, than anyone else has proposed.

Clearly he thinks the opening is on Bush`s right, not to the moderate side of Kemp. But the real question is whether he can translate his success on the state level into a national campaign as effectively as Carter and Reagan did. If he can, Pete IV could have a shot.